Wage Garnishment in Ohio: The 25% Cap and the 5-Day Hearing

Garnishment of personal earnings is the end of a collection case, not the beginning. A creditor cannot reach a paycheck without a judgment, and once it has one, the amount it can take is capped, the employer has to be served, and the debtor gets a short window to contest the calculation. Consumer debts that travel this far often begin with the kinds of disputes covered in rights and remedies under the Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act.

How much of an Ohio paycheck a creditor can take

Ohio borrows the federal ceiling and layers a floor underneath it. Under Ohio Rev. Code § 2329.66(A)(13), a person domiciled in Ohio may hold exempt from garnishment the greater of two amounts: seventy-five per cent of disposable earnings, or thirty times the current federal minimum hourly wage if paid weekly (sixty times if biweekly, sixty-five times if semimonthly, one hundred thirty times if monthly). Because 75% is exempt, the most a judgment creditor can take from any pay period is 25%.

The federal ceiling in 15 U.S.C. § 1673 is the lesser of 25% of disposable earnings for the week or the amount by which those earnings exceed thirty times the federal minimum wage. The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour since 2009 under 29 U.S.C. § 206(a)(1), which puts the weekly floor at $217.50 as of 2026. A worker with $217.50 or less in weekly disposable earnings has nothing garnishable. Between $217.50 and $290, only the amount above $217.50 can be taken. Above $290, the 25% figure controls.

“Disposable earnings” is a defined term, not gross pay and not take-home pay. Ohio Rev. Code § 2329.66(C)(1) defines it as net earnings after the garnishee has made deductions required by law, excluding support deductions ordered under sections 3119.80, 3119.81, 3121.02, 3121.03, and 3123.06 of the Revised Code. Taxes and mandatory withholdings come out first; voluntary deductions such as retirement contributions or insurance premiums do not.

The written demand that comes before the garnishment

Every garnishment traces back to a judgment, and every judgment traces back to a lawsuit filed inside the six-year limit on most Ohio consumer debt collection. Once judgment is entered, the creditor still cannot go straight to the employer.

Ohio Rev. Code § 2716.02(A) requires the creditor to make a written demand for the non-exempt portion of the judgment at least fifteen days and not more than forty-five days before asking the court for the order. The demand goes to the debtor by personal service through the court, by certified mail with return receipt requested, or by regular mail evidenced by a stamped certificate of mailing, addressed to the last known residence. The statute prescribes the wording, headed “NOTICE OF COURT PROCEEDING TO COLLECT DEBT.”

That notice lists three things a debtor can do within the fifteen-day window to head off the garnishment, all set out in Ohio Rev. Code § 2716.02:

1. Pay the amount demanded

   Paying the full amount stated in the notice ends the matter. The figure includes interest and court costs, so it is usually larger than the original judgment.

2. Return the Payment to Avoid Garnishment form

   The statutory form is a worksheet. It asks for disposable earnings for the current pay period, then compares 25% of that figure against the amount by which it exceeds the thirty-times-minimum-wage floor, and directs the debtor to send the smallest of that result or the total indebtedness. Earnings have to be verified by the employer’s signature or by attaching pay stubs for the two pay periods before the notice arrived.

3. Apply for a trustee

   A debtor can apply to the local municipal or county court, or to the court where the workplace sits if the debtor lives outside Ohio, for appointment of a trustee to receive the non-exempt part of earnings and distribute it among listed creditors. While a trustee is in place, those creditors cannot garnish.

If the demand goes unanswered, the creditor commences the proceeding by filing an affidavit under Ohio Rev. Code § 2716.03(A). The affidavit has to name the debtor and the employer and state that the section 2716.02 demand was made, that the demanded payment was not made, that the affiant knows of no trustee application, and that the affiant knows of no debt scheduling agreement covering the debt.

Debt scheduling is its own bar. Under Ohio Rev. Code § 2716.03(B), no garnishment of personal earnings may be brought for a debt that is the subject of a debt scheduling agreement with a budget and debt counseling service unless a payment under that agreement is due and unpaid for more than forty-five days, or the creditor was told the agreement had been terminated.

What the order does once it reaches your employer

An Ohio garnishment of personal earnings is not a one-time deduction. Ohio Rev. Code § 2716.041(B) makes the order continuous: the employer withholds the statutory percentage from disposable earnings every pay period, starting with the first full pay period after it receives the order, until the judgment plus court costs and interest are paid in full. The order itself has to state the total probable amount due and break out the unpaid judgment, the interest rate, and the court costs.

The employer’s obligations run on a schedule. Under Ohio Rev. Code § 2716.041(C)(4), the employer pays the withheld money to the court within thirty days after the end of each pay period, together with an interim report and answer, and delivers a signed copy of that report to the employee. The same division lets the employer deduct a processing fee of up to three dollars from the amount withheld for each pay period in which it actually withholds, and that fee is not charged as court costs.

Requesting a hearing within five business days

When the order issues, the court sends the debtor a statutory notice along with a postage-paid request-for-hearing form. Both are prescribed word for word in Ohio Rev. Code § 2716.06(A) and (B). The notice arrives with the employer’s answer showing exactly how the withholding was calculated.

The deadline is short and it is measured in business days. Ohio Rev. Code § 2716.06(C) gives the debtor five business days after receiving the notice to deliver a written request for hearing to the clerk of the court. The court then schedules the hearing no later than twelve days after the request is made, or sooner if the debtor marked the request as an emergency. Stating reasons on the form is optional, and leaving them off waives no defense and does not limit the evidence the debtor can present.

The hearing has a narrow subject. The statute limits it to consideration of the amount of personal earnings, if any, that can be used to satisfy the debt. Objections to the judgment itself are outside its scope, which is why the notice states that no objections to the judgment will be heard or considered. Arguments that fit inside the hearing are arithmetic ones: that the employer used gross pay instead of disposable earnings, that the pay-period multiplier was wrong, or that the earnings fall under the floor entirely. Complaints about how a collector behaved travel on a different track, through an Ohio Attorney General complaint against the collector, and the garnishment hearing is not the place for them.

How an Ohio garnishment of personal earnings ends

Ohio Rev. Code § 2716.041(C)(1) lists the events that terminate a continuous order, whichever comes first:

• The total probable amount due on the judgment is paid in full through the withholdings.
• The creditor files with the issuing court, and serves on the employer and debtor, either a written notice that the amount has been paid or otherwise satisfied or a written request to terminate the order.
• A municipal or county court appoints a trustee under Ohio Rev. Code § 2329.70 and issues the employer an order staying the garnishment.
• A United States bankruptcy court issues the employer an order staying the garnishment.
• Another order of garnishment for the same debtor and a different creditor arrives, either with higher priority under state or federal law, such as a support order or an Internal Revenue Service levy, or without it.

While an order remains in effect, the same creditor cannot file a second affidavit on the same judgment. When the order ends, the employer files a final report and answer with the court stating the date it received the order, the total probable amount due, the total withheld, and, where relevant, the reason the order stopped.